Chapter 5
Luca
I’m on cloud nine.
Perry is in my home.
As I lead her inside and lock the door behind us, I’m suddenly glad I couldn’t sleep last night and spent it cleaning the place. No sign of my obsession with her—at least not out in the open. But if she goes into my office, I’m screwed. I’ll have to remember to lock the door.
“So, this is my place,” I tell her, reluctantly releasing her hand.
“It’s great.”
I look around, trying to see it through her eyes. I haven’t bothered with decorating, so the place is pretty sparse. I wanted Perry to pick out what she liked. I want her stamp on every square inch of our home.
“Thanks. I just moved in, so it’s not fully furnished yet.”
“Oh, when did you move here?” she asks.
About two days after you did.
“About a week and a half ago.”
“What brings you to Wolf Valley?”
You.
“I needed a change of scenery,” I lie.
“Where did you live before?”
“I was in the Army, so I kind of moved around a lot.”
“Really? That explains the build,” she says with a smile.
I look down at my body. “Oh, I’ve always been big. I guess it helped, though.”
“What was your job in the Army?”
“I was a Green Beret.”
“Wow,” she whispers, staring up at me with wide eyes. “Special forces.”
“Yeah.”
“And you just got out?”
“I was injured. Medically discharged.”
“Oh, Luca,” she says softly, her eyes sad. “I’m so sorry.”
“I was ready to get out,” I assure her.
“I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Me too.”
She smiles up at me.
I clear my throat.
“What about you? What brings you to Wolf Valley?”
I want to ask her who was in the car that spooked her, but I hope she’ll open up more if I don’t interrogate her.
“I needed a change too,” she says stiffly.
I wait for her to continue when she pauses.
“I… My parents are kind of mob… adjacent.”
I already knew that, but I lift an eyebrow, pretending to be surprised. “What does that mean?”
“They worked for the Don,” she says, suddenly sounding exhausted.
“Did you… like that life?” I ask carefully.
She shakes her head, looking angry. “No. I hated it. It was a lifestyle of paranoia and trust issues. I want a normal life. That’s part of why I left and moved here.”
“And what’s the other part of why you moved?”
She stares at me for a beat. I hold her gaze, willing her to trust me and open up.
Give me all of your problems, baby. I want to solve them all.
“Bryan Marchessi,” she finally whispers.
I clench my hands into fists. I’ll kill him.
“He was with the family. A lieutenant. He took a liking to me, but I refused to be with him. He was getting… insistent. His ego couldn’t take the rejection. So I left.”
I grit my teeth, swallowing my rage. I hate that she had to leave her home and family because of that asshole. Although it doesn’t sound like she would’ve stayed there. She doesn’t seem to miss the place or the people—even her parents.
“He’s looking for me. I think that was his car in town,” she says in a rush.
Now that the dam has cracked, it’s all spilling out.
“I don’t know what to do, Luca. I’m so scared and I have nowhere to go and I can’t afford an apartment or a new tire or breakfast. I can’t find a job.
No one is hiring. I can’t keep myself safe. I can’t—”
“Leave it to me.”
She blinks at my words, or maybe it was my harsh tone.
I clear my throat, determined to be gentle for her. “Nothing bad will happen to you,” I promise. “Not on my watch. Those assholes looking for you will have to go through me to get close to you, and that’s not fucking happening.”
I should probably stop swearing so much…
“I can’t drag you into this mess,” Perry objects.
“You’re not. I’m walking into it willingly.”
Perry watches me for a beat. I wonder if she can see how furious I am on her behalf. Do I look like a beast to her? Do I remind her of the men she’s running from?
I can’t have that, so I do my best to relax my features and look like a normal member of society, not the bloodthirsty monster that I feel like right now.
Finally, she says, “Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me and getting tangled up in this mess? I’m no one to you.”
You’re everything to me. My whole fucking world.
I can’t tell her that, though. Debating how much to share with her, I finally settle on a half-truth. “I took an oath to protect people.”
I can see that she doesn’t believe me.
“I like you, Perry,” I admit quietly.
Huge fucking understatement.
“I can feel a connection here. Between us. That probably sounds crazy, and I’m sure I’m not doing a great job of explaining it.”
I watch her, studying every emotion that crosses her face, holding my breath until finally she ducks her head and sighs.
“I can feel it too,” she admits. “I trusted you right away.”
Those words are like a bomb going off inside me. I feel like I just won the lottery, and I make a concentrated effort to keep my breathing steady, to not reach for her and crush her against me.
“Me too,” I murmur.
I bite my tongue so I don’t spill everything right there and then. I want to, though. I want to tell her that I knew she was meant to be mine from the moment I saw her… months ago.
Not too fast. My girl likes me too. That’s a start.
Now, if I can just get her moved in here with me and a ring on her finger…